1998-07-08 - Heaven or Hell?

Question: "If we die (from this flesh body) and have not accepted Jesus Christ
then we are bound for Hell?"

Every statement generally has a context. There was probably a progression
that led up to the statement and probably things that followed. Your second
response helped, and, I think I understand that what you are taking issue
with is that "fear of going to hell" is not the reason we should serve God.
If I could take this line of thinking one step further, (I don't want to
put words in your e-mail), I would say that you might say that the real or
true reason to serve God is from a motivation of love.

Since space is short,
I would like to focus on one word in the above quotation: accepted. A lot
of Christians can tell you the when, where and how they accepted Christ into
their hearts. They might say, "On March, 22, 1984, at 1:33 in the afternoon,
I was reading my Bible in my room at my desk, and I felt God's presence and
I knelt down beside my bed and asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins. That
was when I became a Christian." My response is, "That's fantastic, how is
your walk with Christ today? Are you growing in the grace of our Lord and
Saviour?"

My concern is not so much that someone knows the day, time and
circumstances of becoming a Christian but rather my concern is, "are you
walking with Christ". Is there victory over indwelling sin. Not so much,
"do you have a changed life" (although I want to know that also), but more,
do you have a changing life. Day by day are you growing up into a more
mature follower of Christ and being transformed by the Holy Spirit.

I would like to re-state the statement as a reminder both for myself and
anyone reading this: "If we die (from this flesh body) and have not accepted
Jesus Christ then we are bound for Hell?"

What we are asking is, what is the gospel? Or, how does one not still be
bound for Hell? The only road out of Hell is faith in the truth of the
incarnation, sinless life, vicarious death, and victorious resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Or as the Bible puts it, Romans 10:9 "That if you confess
with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised
Him from the dead, you shall be saved." This raises the question, saved from
what? Well, Hell, damnation, eternal separation from God is what we are saved
from. And this verse in Romans says the way out of Hell is confessing Jesus
as Lord, and believing that God raised Him from the dead. If we die without
doing this, we go to Hell.

Nobody likes to talk about hell today. We want
everything to "work out". But just as bad things happen to people in life,
so bad things happen to people in death. If we really think about it, the
reality of hell is rather depressing. But bad news can still be true news
and the good news is that Christ offers us forgiveness from the sins that
make us bound for hell. My hope and prayer is that young Christian or old
Christian, seeker or evangelist, we will learn more and more to trust in
the grace and mercy offered to us in Jesus Christ.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and
believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment,
but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24

There is none righteous, not even one. Romans 3:10

Come now, let us reason together, Says the Lord, though
your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be
red like crimson, they will be like wool. Isaiah 1:18

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 6:8